MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. Russians, who live in big and small cities, applied for free land plots under the Arctic Hectare program, which from February 1 is available for any Russian citizen, not only for those who live in the Arctic zone. Federal and regional officials told TASS the biggest demand is for plots in the North-Western Federal District. Most applicants say they want to build family houses or to implement tourism projects there.
"As of now, we have registered more than 7,800 applications for hectares in the Arctic, where 3,787 applications are for plots in the Murmansk Region, 2,055 - in Karelia, 1,106 - in the Arkhangelsk Region, 806 - in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, 64 - in the Nenets Region, and 50 - in the Komi Region. As the program became available for non-Arctic residents, the demand has jumped for plots in the Murmansk and Karelia regions," the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic told TASS.
Who is interested
According to regional officials, mostly people from big cities have demonstrated the interest for Arctic hectares. For example, in the Murmansk Region, where presently more than 700,000 hectares in almost all districts are still available, applications have come even from Siberia. "Applications have been filed by people living in Moscow, the Moscow Region, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Kemerovo and other cities," the Murmansk Region’s Deputy Governor Olga Kuznetsova told TASS.
The Arkhangelsk Region also points to the interest from the regions, which are quite far away. "From February 1, 2022, we have received 28 applications from other regions. Those are Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Pskov Region, Bryansk, Krasnoyarsk, Yekaterinburg, the Kurgan Region, Ufa, and Karelia," the region’s Minister of Property Irina Kovaleva told TASS, adding the Arkhangelsk Region has to offer more than 1,500 hectares.
According to Karelia’s Minister of Property and Land Yanina Svidskaya, applications come even from Russia’s south. "Most applicants come from Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Krasnodar Region," she said, stressing the region has a vast variety of plots - 337,000 hectares, most of the plots are forest lands.
The Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region has received first five applications from people living in Omsk, Tyumen and Yekaterinburg, the local officials told TASS. Many more applicants are local residents - they have filed more than 800 applications. The region offers 17,000 hectares under the program.
How to use land plots
The regional government officials say most land plots would be used for housing construction or for development of tourism projects. "Many recipients only now register their purposes. As a rule, they announce a few variants. The priorities are - housing construction or doing business, where businesses are mostly related to tourism or roadside infrastructures," the Murmansk Region’s deputy governor said. The region, she continued, has everything necessary for organization of tourism facilities, and land plots are available also by lakes, for example, near Lake Kanentyavr.
In Karelia future land owners plan to make camping or hunting sites. "The applications may be divided into two groups: about one in two applicants plan housing construction and gardens, and the other half applicants have business purposes, related to tourism: hunting, fishing, camping, glamping. This means, the desire to do businesses, to build, and, possibly, some will want to move," the region’s minister said.
Officials in the Arkhangelsk Region tell applicants to decide first what their purposes will be, because the plots for housing construction are located in areas with easy connections to existing engineering networks. The plots for hunting, fishing, tourism and agriculture are not expected to have such infrastructures. According to the regional minister, the authorities have filed an application to the federal level for 8.9 billion rubles ($80 million) to connect to the engineering communications the plots, which will be taken by families with many children, who plan to build houses there.
Low demand for land plots
However, not all the regions have high demand for land in the Arctic. For example, in the Krasnoyarsk Region the program has not started, the Association of the Low-Numbered Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East said. The Association’s Vice President on the Siberian Federal District Artur Gayulsky is skeptical about the program’s implementation. "What Arctic hectare is there? Arctic regions have been protecting themselves from that Arctic Hectare, nothing will grow there," he told TASS, adding he feared the plots could be owned by wealthy people, who would organize leisure areas that may affect interests of the low-numbered indigenous peoples of the North.
About 95% of the Nenets Autonomous Region’s territory is the agricultural land for deer farming and there are no infrastructures there. This explains why the region’s administration has not received applications from other regions. Another region with low demand is Komi - over the program’s term, only 58 plots have been applied for, the local authorities told TASS.